Open Source Paint.NET Alternatives for Mac

Paint.NET is not available for Mac but there are plenty of alternatives that runs on macOS with similar functionality. The best open source Mac alternative is Pinta. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Paint.NET and 12 are open source and available for Mac so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source Mac alternatives to Paint.NET are Krita, GIMP, MyPaint and LazPaint.

filter to find the best alternatives

Paint.NET alternatives are mainly Image Editors, but if you're looking for Photo Editors or Digital Painting Tools you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Linux, Mac, Android, Online, Android Tablet, Windows and iPhone. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Paint.NET.

More about Paint.NET

Paint.NET alternatives page was last updated Mar 25, 2026

Pinta
280 likes
Pinta is a image editing, drawing and painting application with a simple yet powerful interface. Pinta has a wide range of drawing tools, including: freehand, rectangles, circles and lines. It also has over 35 effects to apply to your images, and also has the ability to create...
100 Pinta alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (MIT)
Application types
Digital Painting
Image Editor
Origin
International
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
BSD
Flathub
Mono
Snapcraft
Is Pinta a good alternative to Paint.NET?

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22comments
Pinta vs Paint.NET Comments

Top Positive Comment
Guest
Oct 4, 2015
12
This functions in almost identical ways to Paint.NET, more so than any other program listed on here.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
Top Negative Comment
Guest
Feb 15, 2019
6
It gives you a good taste of Paint.NET, but it's so broken and painful to work with that it just isn't worth using; e.g. the text function doesn't work.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
Guest
Negative commentMar 25, 2026
0
no settings menu (!), won't snap in place on windows, couldn't change language, buttons have a clunky mac-styled shape and they're too small. won't use.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
3 of 22 comments
Pinta is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
Pinta is Privacy focusedPaint.NET is not according to our users
Krita
1450 likes
Free, open-source painting software designed by artists for artists. Offers customizable UI, 9 brush engines, color management, tablet support, non-destructive editing, and privacy features. Portable and available on major platforms, supporting seamless texture creation.
145 Krita alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Digital Painting
Origin
Netherlands
EU
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Android Tablet
KDE Plasma
Epic Games Store
PortableApps.com
F-Droid
Steam
AppImage
+6
Is Krita a good alternative to Paint.NET?

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16comments
Krita vs Paint.NET Comments

Top Positive Comment
Generic_Sweetener
Jul 28, 2020
5
There isn't anything else exactly like paint.net, but Krita comes the closest in terms of features and ease of use. It's relatively intuitive, has various customization options, and is sufficient for basic photo editing and more advanced image manipulation and drawing.
Top Negative Comment
Guest
Jan 22, 2017
16
Very good, but not focused to photo editing.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
beng tang
Positive commentSep 16, 2023
0
As an alternative to Paint.NET for Linux, Krita is not exactly the same, but it has most of the same functionality and it can resize (Image > Scale Image to New Size) images using a variety of resampling filters including Lanczos3, which makes it better than GIMP for resizing photos.
3 of 16 comments
Krita is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
Krita is Customizable and Privacy focusedPaint.NET is not according to our users
GIMP
4774 likes
Free open-source suite offering advanced photo retouching, image composition, original artwork creation, batch processing, plugin support, custom scripting, mass image format conversion, and integration with free publishing tools for comprehensive editing solutions.
190 GIMP alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-3.0)
Application types
Image Editor
Digital Painting
Origin
United States
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
BSD
Snapcraft
Flathub
PortableApps.com
Haiku
Flatpak
AmigaOS
AppImage
+5
Is GIMP a good alternative to Paint.NET?

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41comments
GIMP vs Paint.NET Comments

Top Positive Comment
Guest
May 21, 2019
1
free, open-source, cross-platform
Review by a new / low-activity user.
Top Negative Comment
zlelmefs
Dec 13, 2021
7
The #1 perk of paint.net is how lightweight and fast it is, it's intended as a competitor to Paint. GIMP is the complete opposite- it's a big, slow monster designed to compete with photoshop.
Guest
Negative commentFeb 1, 2026
0
It's slow and has a lot of stuff you have to learn while paint.net is easy to use and lightweight.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
3 of 41 comments
GIMP is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
GIMP is Customizable and Privacy focusedPaint.NET is not according to our users
MyPaint
394 likes
MyPaint is a fast, distraction-free, and easy painting tool for digital artists. It supports graphics tablets made by Wacom, and many similar devices.
131 MyPaint alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-2.0)
Application type
Digital Painting
Origin
Switzerland
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
PortableApps.com
+2
Is MyPaint a good alternative to Paint.NET?

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2comments
MyPaint vs Paint.NET Comments

superluminar
Negative commentOct 29, 2017
6
MyPaint is a digital painting/drawing program, Paint.NET is a simple image editor.
Guest
Negative commentMay 3, 2017
2
MyPaint looks a lot like Photoshop. Paint.NET is so popular because of the simplicity. Photoshop is a beautiful program with a lot of options. Paint.NET is a simple "paint" program that allows you to go as you like, but keep it simple at the beginning. MyPaint is like a Photoshop lite.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
MyPaint is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
LazPaint
46 likes
Raster & vector graphic editor with many tools and filters, written in Lazarus. Portable, 32bit & 64bit versions, ORA format & 16384x16384 image support. In app 3D import & rendering.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-3.0)
Application types
Digital Painting
Image Editor
Origin
France
EU
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
BSD
PortableApps.com
Flathub
Flatpak
+2
Is LazPaint a good alternative to Paint.NET?

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6comments
LazPaint vs Paint.NET Comments

Top Positive Comment
sourloti
Oct 31, 2022
3
Is able to open and edit .pdn files! Especially handy if you're on Linux and aren't able/don't want to use paint.net.
beng tang
Positive commentSep 5, 2024
0
LazPaint comes close to Paint.NET in terms of ease of use and features. Unlike GIMP, LazPaint has good resampling / resizing algorithms including Lanczos. Unlike Krita, it's selection tool does not select outside the image and it can print images. Amongst the Linux image editors I have tried, it is so far the best alternative to Paint.NET.
Guest
Positive commentMar 28, 2024
0
Lightweight and available in Debian 11
Review by a new / low-activity user.
3 of 6 comments
LazPaint is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
PhotoGIMP
25 likes
A Patch for GIMP 3+ for Photoshop Users.
15 PhotoGIMP alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-3.0)
Application types
Image Editor
Photo Editor
Origin
Brazil
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Is PhotoGIMP a good alternative to Paint.NET?
Pixelitor
27 likes
Open source image editor with non-destructive editing, 110+ filters, adjustment and text layers, support for smart objects and adjustment layers, cross-platform compatibility, and layer-based editing for flexible image composition.
114 Pixelitor alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-3.0)
Application types
Image Editor
Digital Painting
Origin
Hungary
EU
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
+4
Is Pixelitor a good alternative to Paint.NET?

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1comment
Pixelitor vs Paint.NET Comments

nlacaria
Positive commentMay 9, 2023
0
not a similar GUI, but similar speed and basic functionality. closest "base" program to Paint.Net on Linux. Paint.Net is much more expandable with extensions. But Pixelitor is much more accurate in things like cropping than Pinta
Review by a new / low-activity user.
Pixelitor is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary
showFoto
14 likes
You can use it to view your photographs and improve them. Showfoto is the standalone image editor of the digiKam project.
104 showFoto alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application types
Image Editor
Photo Editor
Origin
Germany
EU
Platforms
Mac
Linux
KDE
Is showFoto a good alternative to Paint.NET?
Seashore
69 likes
Seashore is an open source image editor for Mac OS. It features gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for both text and brush strokes. It supports multiple layers and alpha channel editing. It is based around the GIMPs technology and uses the same native file format.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-2.0)
Application types
Image Editor
Photo Editor
Origin
International
Platforms
Mac
Is Seashore a good alternative to Paint.NET?
Gimel Studio
3 likes
Gimel Studio is a non-destructive, 2D image editor focused on simplicity, speed, elegance and usability.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-3.0)
Application type
Image Editor
Origin
International
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Is Gimel Studio a good alternative to Paint.NET?
CinePaint
15 likes
CinePaint is a deep paint application that edits EXR, DPX, 16-bit TIFF, JPEG, PNG and many other types of image files. CinePaint is available as a native application for Linux, Mac OS X, and BSD.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Image Editor
Origin
United States
Alerts
Discontinued
Platforms
Mac
Linux
Is CinePaint a good alternative to Paint.NET?
ImagePlay
12 likes
ImagePlay is a rapid prototyping tool for building and testing image processing algorithms.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-3.0)
Application type
Image Editor
Alerts
Discontinued
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Is ImagePlay a good alternative to Paint.NET?

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3comments
ImagePlay vs Paint.NET Comments

Guest
Negative commentMar 22, 2019
1
This is for Processing images, not for editing them.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
Guest
Negative commentMay 25, 2019
0
Different purpose than Paint.net
Review by a new / low-activity user.
Guest
Negative commentJul 27, 2020
0
Different purpose that paint.net . Paint.net is an image editing software, this is for Image Proccessing.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
ImagePlay is Free and Open SourcePaint.NET is Free and Proprietary

12 of 12 Paint.NET alternatives

Open Source Paint.NET Alternatives for Mac

Alternatives list

Pinta

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Pinta vs Paint.NET Comments

Krita

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Krita vs Paint.NET Comments

GIMP

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GIMP vs Paint.NET Comments

MyPaint

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MyPaint vs Paint.NET Comments

LazPaint

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LazPaint vs Paint.NET Comments

PhotoGIMP

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Pixelitor

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Pixelitor vs Paint.NET Comments

showFoto

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Seashore

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Gimel Studio

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CinePaint

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ImagePlay

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ImagePlay vs Paint.NET Comments